Top stories around our network this week
Last week, Get a Grip focused on the wide range of legislative proposals afoot across the land relating to sports betting. network of staff and sites continued that work this week, as lawmakers mull potential legalization in Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, and Minnesota, among other states.
Far rarer is the need to devote much coverage to goings-on in Congress, which has pretty much left the topic of sports betting untouched since PASPA’s rejection by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2018. But that changed with U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko’s introduction of a bill that would ban all sports betting advertising from television, radio, and the internet.
There’s nothing to indicate that the New York congressman’s Betting on Our Future Act, as he calls it, is headed for passage — or even a vote or hearing. But the draconian sweep of the proposal is sufficient to have quickly united the industry against it, as Jill R. Dorson noted in an in-depth look at the reactions of operators, consultants, state regulators, and other stakeholders.
Even if there are inherent flaws with a system that has every state doing legalization and regulation in its own way — if it chooses to do them at all — it will surprise us if federal powers-that-be decide they’re ready to step in with some of the strict regulations that have been tried in European countries. We’ll be watching, though, and reporting on any key developments, just as with these other stories below from the past week.
A little trip around the states
Georgia legislator seeks responsible gambling input on betting bill